Uber is out and Ryde is in. Just days after Grab announced the acquisition of Uber in South-East Asia, a new competitor has stepped up to fill the huge void left behind by Uber.
Ryde, a homegrown Singapore ride-hailing app, has announced its intentions to introduce a brand new private-hire car service as it seeks to expand its services.
The new private-hire service by Ryde would be named RydeX, an uncanny resemblance to the popular UberX service back in the hay-days.
About Ryde
Ryde was introduced into the Singapore market in 2014 as a social carpooling service similar to that of GrabHitch. In 2017, it was awarded a certificate of registration to operate a 3rd-part taxi booking application when it partnered Comfort Delgro to enable users to book Comfort Delgro taxi through its app.
Channel NewsAsia reported that the homegrown ride-hailing app has already opened up new driver registrations. Its current combined fleet is over 55,000 private cars and taxis, providing service to 300,000 passengers daily.
Offering private-hire car services would complete our mobility suite to serve our users better,” said founder and CEO of Ryde Technologies Terence Zou. Over the past two years, we have been growing our base of both users and drivers, and RydeX will provide Singaporeans an effective alternative to booking a private-hire car.
Lower commission for Drivers, More Savings for Riders
Ryde is coming in strong with the new RydeX private-hire service. They will be lowering the commission rate to 10% for drivers, instead of the usual 20% that drivers pay for on UberFLASH and JustGrab services.
Their objective is to bring savings to riders in the form of lower fares and higher earnings to drivers through lower commission rate.
Will the new service takeoff?
Competition is always good as companies would have to fight it out to incentivise both drivers and riders.
The challenge for Ryde is whether they have the financial muscle to take on Grab?
Satisfying private-hire drivers is never an easy task. You have to take care of their earnings concerns like weekly incentives, fare, surge pricing, amount of jobs, rider’s quality, driver’s app quality, driver’s support, the list goes on. You can start looking into Commercial Car Insurance to get yourself covered
When one company is unable to provide them with the platform to make a decent income, they would just simply switch to the competitor that can allow them to earn more.
RydeX would need to prove its worth to both drivers and riders fast if it were to succeed in the market.
